Birthday Week

This has been a great week with work and new gringos, and it has also been birthday week! Laura turned 17, Tobin turned 3, and I turned 26 (yikes). We had some celebrations and a lot of fun. Also, gringo food, which might be the highlight birthdays these days.

I miss being with my family, of course, but I am reminded (often, but especially occasions such as these) that I must be THE luckiest human to have such an incredibly amazing family at home AND to have formed such a loving, fun, and real family here in another country. 

God has been good to me. That is an understatement.

AIMers

Last week, a new group of gringitos arrived that will be joining us for the next year or two-ish. (I'm very confused about the amount of time that they will be here... Apparently 14-22 months). 

This is blurry. It's from the Ipad. It's the best I can do.

There are 8 of them, ranging in age from 18-24. They are with the organization Adventures in Missions, hence the term AIMers. They went through a training program with classes and such and are now serving as "missionary apprentices". 

They're going to be helping with several ministries, including helping to initiate a college-aged ministry, involvement with our already existing ministries, and more. For now they're getting moved in, adjusting to life, and are taking Spanish classes. 

In order to kick-off their time here the MUR gringos and AIMers went on a retreat to Gracias, Lempira. We stayed in a hotel and had sessions to worship together, review their contracts, and fill them in on all of the MUR inside info they will need to know. Then, of course, we went to the zip-line just for fun. (Although I am absolutely positive that they did not all enjoy it). It was a great chance to bond and begin getting to know one another.

Can't you see the enthusiasm oozing from their pores?!
Can't control it. They love it here already.

I'm excited about getting to know them and work with them over the next months. It is fun to have more people with whom we can speak English.. But honestly I'm equally excited to have some new minions to carry my heavy boxes and things:).. I'm sure it will be quite helpful during this busy summer to have some extra hands around. 

(I realize y'all are probably going to read this.. Love y'all already! Not just excited that y'all will help me with my dirty work.. But it doesn't hurt.)

It was also Laura's birthday! Happy birthday, niña!

Spring Update

Alejandro came to visit!

Sometimes I'm terrible at writing posts and keeping people updated because the stuff I'm doing really doesn't seem interesting enough to write about.. Sorry, Mom!

The last couple of months have been filled with preparations for the summer, a VCOM group and a handful of visitors, a little vacation time (Holy Week), and some quality time with the girls. It has, of course, been somewhat busy, because who isn't busy all the time? But in comparison to the next several months it has been the "calm before the storm" and I'm really trying to take advantage.

First of all, there was VCOM. Went pretty much the same as those weeks always do. A few challenges, but in the end everything went pretty well and we saw probably about 500 patients. It's always fun to have them around.

Then, there was holy week. Everything shuts down in Central America for the week, so we had the week off. I thought I would keep working just to get ahead, but I ended up actually taking the week off and it was marvelous. Spent a LOT of time at the Stacy's house playing games and spending time with our co-workers, and it was a much needed break.

I also used the week off to spend some time with the girls one-on-one. It's something I don't get to do as much as I would like, so it was nice to have a week where they all had time off.

Now we're all busy getting ready for the quickly approaching summer months! The AIMers get here next week and the interns sometime after that, and soon after we'll have groups every day for 2 months. I'm looking forward to it!

Dama teaching someone to write

Dama and Stefa refusing to leave the Waldron's

Yeni and Alejandro

Oh, just my favorite crazy Iris (Karol's mom) and Merlyn Laura

Guatemala Road Trip

Last weekend, our little team of youth group leaders (minus Jeremias) loaded up and headed off to Guatemala City for a youth workers conference.

Some ministers from Miami/Central America started holding this conference last year to help educate those of us that are working with youth groups. Seemed like a great chance to get some new ideas and learn how be better at what we do.

From Friday night until Saturday night we bounced back and forth between big sessions and smaller classes. We heard a little about how to be an efficient youth leader, how to involve parents and teens, etc. (Also included some interesting classes for the women about being extraordinary butterflies or fighting wolves, but thankfully there were just a couple of those..) Overall it was a decent conference. Mostly, I love our team and really enjoyed spending the weekend with all of them! We laughed a lot, and they really made it a great trip.

A few side notes about the trip, just for fun:

• The air conditioning in my car was (is) out, so the 96 degrees in and around Guatemala City made for a long 7 hours in the car.
• We had lunch at the mall on Friday, and I have never in my life been so excited to see a Taco Bell. (Insert your own quip along the lines of "how far I have fallen".. but it is what it is). It was the first time everyone in the group (non-gringo) tried Taco Bell and they LOVED it. Said it was expensive but worth it.. so that's how desperate we are for food.
• Saturday night there was to be a "comedian" which really turned out to be a raving clown.. Complete with light up juggling balls and glow sticks. I'm pretty afraid of clowns.
• Discovered that many things are "prohibited" in the malls in Guatemala City.. Including but not limited to taking photos or sitting in the floor.

<<Just watching Angel squeeze my car into "the church parking lot" 

Yulema's ready for bed..^^

Spring Break

Last week we had 3 different groups here on spring break trips.

First, there was the Pine Tree youth group (Texas), and I love them because they painted my house! I've been begging to have the inside of that house painted for quite a while now, and we love the new colors. Really though, absolutely anything would have been better than the orange that coated our walls before.. But the new blue and beige are great. They even painted some bible verses. Maybe between the better colors and the verses, everyone will be in happy moods all the time! **Wishful thinking**

Then, there was the group from the Auburn Christian Student Center that came to do construction on a church building in Contamal. I was especially excited to have a group from the ACSC because I went to Auburn, and was involved in the Honduras mission trip when I was there. They were a great group! Phil and Jon talked about how hard they worked, and I was proud that they were the group that the other MUR-ers associated with me. 

Finally, there was Southside (Texas), here for a medical brigade. This is obviously the group that I was with all week. Everybody had to work extra hard since they did medical, dental and vision with only 18 people (plus a few that we provided as helpers). They all worked in the rain and heat, and the week was a success. We saw 887 patients in 3 days, pulled a monton of teeth, and gave away tons of glasses and sunglasses. There's really never been a group that I just didn't like, and this group was no exception. I really enjoyed working with them! Although somehow I ended up spending a lot of time chasing around children, either while their moms were getting teeth pulled or having breathing treatments.. Otherwise, though, it was a great week as usual!

Mayfairian Visitors and a Retreat

Aside from the medical brigades, we had several visitors and other happenings in January/February that are worth a blog update.

Sidenote: a nearby hospital has been asking us to bring groups to perform surgeries in their facility. There is a need, but we don't want to begin something so serious without doing an extensive amount of research.

So, Dr. Kinzer and Andy Curtis came down to investigate and share their opinions on the things that would need to change before these groups become realistic. Along with Matt and Kristen Moore and Kyle K. that were visiting as well, we toured the hospital and asked some important questions. While we're not done "researching" before any decisions or commitments are made, this was a necessary step, so we are thankful that they made the trip.

Dr. Kinzer and Andy also stayed for one day of the medical brigade, and it was nice to have extra help. I was secretly hoping that Dr. Kinzer would bring a few of his children in his suitcase, but he did not.. Still, I enjoyed very much translating for him during the brigade.

My phone is 110 in phone years
 so don't judge the bad photos

Our other visitors from Mayfair (my and the Stacys' home congregation) were Jason Bybee and Matt Moore. They came down to speak/translate for the MUR team retreat. They are the dynamic duo of speaking/translating gigs, and we were incredibly blessed to have them there to share with us.

The retreat was at the beach in La Ceiba, and we had a great time! There is never a dull moment when the whole team is together, and that is especially true with the Central American part of our team at the beach. I've said before and I'm sure will say again that I am very thankful to work with an organization that invests in the spiritual well-being and relationships of its employees.


Not to be a downer, but the other "happening" worth mentioning is that I ended up making a surprise trip home for a week in February when my grandmother passed away. I was surrounded by loving words and prayers from my family and friends in the 2 countries that feel like home, and I realize how special that is. My family and I appreciate the support!

Lessons in cutting open a chicken.
This is what we do with visitors.

Getting ready for a cookout.

Medical Brigades

We have already had two medical brigades this year! They both went really well, both groups were great, and I'm going to update about both right now.

In January, we hosted a group from LaVergne, TN, but it was far from a normal brigade week for the MUR team. Instead of leaving from Santa Rosa each morning, we traveled with the group to Puerto Cortes. I enjoyed being in the hotel/eating with the group, and I really loved traveling with the MUR gringos for "work"!

The brigade itself went really well. We saw 770 patients in 3 days. LaVergne was a fairly small group, but you wouldn't have known it based on the way they worked. 

It was fun to be a "tourist" with them. For their free day we went to a Spanish fort, which was really interesting. We ate some decent seafood, visited the "beach", and had a medical brigade. Great week.

Stacy kids working hard

In February, we had a brigade in El Limon with the group from Longview, Texas. It was the third time I've been here for their medical brigade, so it was nice to see many of them again and to have a pretty experienced group to work with. 

In 3 days they saw 904 patients. They also were checking eyes and giving out glasses, and they had a dental area with teeth pulling. Of course, the week went really well with them also.

Both groups were a blast to be around and were incredibly encouraging for those of us who live here. As always, by the end of the weeks I was left loving my job even more than before!

Puerto Cortes

I translated for Dr. Kinzer the day he worked with us!

I got the soldier to teach Kevin (translator) how to tie shoes.
Kevin did not enjoy this.